Junqian Xu1, Steen Moeller1, John Strupp1, Edward J. Auerbach1, Liyong Chen2, 3, David A. Feinberg2, 3, Kamil Ugurbil1, Essa Yacoub1
1Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States; 2Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, United States; 3Advanced MRI Technologies, Sebastopol, CA, United States
Using a blipped-controlled-aliasing multiband EPI sequence with k-space center (k0) alignment (ABC-MB EPI), up to 12 simultaneously excited slices at 3T using a 32-channel head coil were achieved. The k-space center (k0) alignment strategy significantly improved image quality for high MB factors compared to using only a balanced blip approach. Spectral analysis of highly accelerated data revealed un-aliased sampling of physiological fluctuations, demonstrating the robustness and utility of the technique, which can be applied to any EPI based application, including fMRI, diffusion, or perfusion imaging.